CACTUS BOWL

champs Harley Sweigart & Jeremiah McClelon

        Harley Sweigart kept the hottest streak of his JBT career going, while Jeremiah McClelon kept a streak of younger winners coming through in handicap, in nervewracking JBT action at Tucson's Cactus Bowl.

        Rachel Berg began the handicap division stepladder finals with a 198-151 win over Tyler Hedges.  Chad Alexander then converted a washout in the tenth frame to squeeze out a 192-189 win over Berg.  Previous day's champ Mathew Adragna then stopped Alexander 206-183 to advance to the title match.

        Jeremiah McClelon opened up the day with the high game of his life, a 150, to grab the game one lead, and re-gained the top spot for the finals.   Adragna showed great versatility in reaching the title match on a completely different pattern than the day before, but could not get lined up in the title match.  Conversely, Jeremiah came up with a new lifetime high, a 161 that easily won the match 261-168, for the second title of his JBT career.  Including McClelon, two 10 year-olds, a 9 year-old, an 8 year-old, and a 7 year-old have all won a JBT event this year- it really is any age, any average at JBT events!

        The scratch field averaged over 30 pins lower compared to the day before, stressing spares over yesterday's strikes, and testing bowlers' versatility, both mental and physical.  Added to that was the tension of the nervewracker format, where matches that are tied 1-1 go right to a one-shot rolloff.  The match of the day may have been #3 seed Sweigart against #6 seed Cortez Schenck, which went to a nervewracker that Harley escaped 8-7, changing the complexion of the rest of the day.  Harley went to nervewracker in his next match as well, again coming out on top, beating Dallas Leong 10-8 in the second tiebreaker.   In the other semifinal, top seed Nick Devlin swept #5 Matt Zweig to set up a title match of ASU teammates.

        Sweigart easily won the first game, and was in control in game two before Devlin made a furious comeback in the second half.  The comeback fell just a pinch short though, and Harley swept the match for the title.  The landmark 10th career victory matches Devlin and fellow teammate Russ Oviatt all at the 10 title mark, which should create an interesting intra-squad rivalry throughout the season.  It also means Harley and Cortez have won the last seven, and 9 of the last 12, JBT titles (and both of them didn't compete in two of those), an unprecedented streak for only two bowlers!   

        Vanessa Romero started a streak of her own, beating Stefanny Toala for teh second straight day, 187-171, to sweep the weekend's Women's Series titles!

        Huge thanks to Dale Schnell and the whole crew at the Venerable Pickle for all their support of the Tour for 20 seasons and counting.  Want in on the fun?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!